Lynn Massachusetts' Annual Pop-Up Street Gallery of Public Art, By the Public

Centerboard is a non-profit dedicated to revitalizing our hometown of Lynn, Massachusetts. A few years back we decided to hold a free photography class for teens. We took their images, enlarged them to 6 feet by 8 feet onto weatherized vinyl and hung them on the wall under the commuter rail bridge located downtown in Central Square. The response to the project was overwhelming. Everybody loved it, from residents to businesses of the neighborhood, to people just passing by. We did it again last year with much success, so now we’re doing it for the third time and calling it “Public Art 3.0”

We like to put on these public art projects because it helps to beautify our community and instill a sense of pride so people connect with and embrace where they live. The projects also enable us to support emerging independent artists, most of who live locally. We are delighted that these large photos continue to be conversation pieces and have never been touched with graffiti or other markings, which proves our theory that most people really do care about where they live.

Our hope for our Public Art series is to continue to find homes for each year’s installations, as well as continuing to install photos on the bridge. By placing each previous year’s works in different places in the community, we can turn Lynn into a canvas of beautiful photographs that many different neighborhoods can enjoy.

In addition to our Arts program, Centerboard is also heavily involved in helping Lynn families get into stable housing, providing financial education for Lynn residents, improving literacy and providing our concerned citizens with proactive and impactful volunteer opportunities. This year on Neighborday, we will join another Lynn based agency in their initiative called “Clean Sweep”. Hundreds of Lynners will gather at Lynn City Hall and literally walk the city’s blocks picking up trash and debris, all the while working their way to our beautiful ocean shoreline.

If you believe in what we're doing and you'd like to see Lynn, Massachusetts beautified with faces from the community, support our Kickstarter campaign.

This project will be featured in GOOD's Saturday series Push for Good—our guide to crowdfunding creative progress.

Hang out with your neighbors on the last Saturday of April (a day we're calling "Neighborday"). Click here to say you'll Do It, and here to download GOOD's Neighborday Toolkit and a bunch of other fun stuff.